Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Monday said that U.S. monetary policy is in a good place, and the Fed will wait and see how the ongoing Middle East conflict will impact the economy and inflation before taking further action on interest rates. Powell reiterated that it is "too soon to know" the long-term scope and duration of the war's economic effects, noting that geopolitical risks make the outlook uncertain. According to the Fed chair, energy shocks tend to be temporary, and raising interest rates immediately to combat inflation caused…

The ghosts of Baghdad and Kabul should be enough to silence any serious talk of sending American troops into Iran. Yet here we are again, with voices in Washington and Tel Aviv whispering that only boots on the ground can neutralize Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, its local allies and its regional mischief. They are wrong. An American invasion of Iran would be a strategic catastrophe, a moral failure and a self-inflicted wound from which the United States might never fully recover. First, the military and logistical reality is brutal.…

Despite the fact that Nigeria is now home to the biggest oil refinery in Africa, Nigeria’s gasoline prices have soared to a record high amid the war in the Middle East. Dangote, the biggest refinery in Africa which began operations in 2024, has already started exporting fuel to regions other than West Africa. The refinery started up in January 2024 with the launch of diesel and naphtha production and began producing gasoline in September 2024. In the early days of the war in the Middle East, the refinery said it would keep its “unwavering…

A fast thaw in relations between the Kremlin and Azerbaijan occurred in March, enabling a strategic link connecting Russia and Iran to keep functioning, despite the ongoing US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. Some Western observers believe the route, known as the western branch of the North-South corridor, is being used by Russia to funnel weapons to Iran to keep the war in the Persian Gulf going. Russian-Azerbaijani relations had been tense since Russian air-defense forces accidentally shot down an Azerbaijani civilian airliner in late 2024 and…

South Korea is weighing the possibility to extend driving curbs from civil servants’ use of vehicles to the general public if oil prices hit $120 per barrel, Finance Minister Koo Yun Cheol said. If enacted, such a measure would be the first in South Korea since 1991 during the Gulf war. Early on Monday, oil prices were rising by over 2% with Brent Crude topping $115 per barrel amid an escalating conflict which now involves the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. South Korea has already restricted access by vehicle to government buildings in a rotating…

South Korea is weighing the possibility to extend driving curbs from civil servants’ use of vehicles to the general public if oil prices hit $120 per barrel, Finance Minister Koo Yun Cheol said. If enacted, such a measure would be the first in South Korea since 1991 during the Gulf war. Early on Monday, oil prices were rising by over 2% with Brent Crude topping $115 per barrel amid an escalating conflict which now involves the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. South Korea has already restricted access by vehicle to government buildings in a rotating…

South Korea is weighing the possibility to extend driving curbs from civil servants’ use of vehicles to the general public if oil prices hit $120 per barrel, Finance Minister Koo Yun Cheol said. If enacted, such a measure would be the first in South Korea since 1991 during the Gulf war. Early on Monday, oil prices were rising by over 2% with Brent Crude topping $115 per barrel amid an escalating conflict which now involves the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. South Korea has already restricted access by vehicle to government buildings in a rotating…

“Iran’s been waiting for the U.S. to put boots on the ground because it knows that while it’s easy to get into a country militarily, it’s much more difficult to get out, and the longer the U.S. is on the ground, the more likely it is to be forced into making a better peace deal for Tehran,” a senior energy security source working closely with the European Union’s (E.U.) energy security complex exclusively told OilPrice.com over the weekend. “And two events this weekend [28-29 March] have dramatically increased…